The aims of the research are to explore the possibilities and limitations of a new approach to pitch perception, based on a kind of auditory spectral pattern-processing. Several types of experiments are proposed. First, we plan a few simple simulation experiments to refine the predictions of our model of pitch perception and to extend it to predict actual pitch matching behavior. Second, we propose an extensive series fo psychophysical experiments designed to measure the important features of the internal spectral representations of certain acoustic stimuli. The forward-masking pattern produced by a stimulus is thought to be a direct reflection of the internal representation of the power-spectrum of the stimulus. Several experiments are directed at the various assumptions underlying this position. Auditory nonlinearities are of special interest. Third, a series of pitch experiments is suggested, to deal with some of the unanswered questions about the effects on pitch of changes in certain stimulus parameters (e.g., relative component amplitude). The central mediation of pitch and procedural artifacts in previous measures of it are of particular concern. Several experiments are proposed to develop objective measures of pitch strength. Numerical predictions of pitch strength constitute a novel feature of our approach; to our knowledge this represents one of the first attempts to deal with this attribute of pitch. Many of the experiments have been expanded to explore certain features of internal spectral representations and pitch perception in the hearing-impaired.